Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Alex Vasyunov Redemption

Last summer before the hockey season started, I made a trade with Luke from the cardboard review. The trade was pretty simple; I sent him a Joe Thornton Acetate card in exchange for two Devils rookie cards. One of those cards was a Panini Luxury Suite Alex Vasyunov rookie redemption. However, Wednesday September 7th happened and Alex was on board with the Lokomotiov Yaroslavl team and perished with his team mates. Like the rest of the hockey world, I certainly mourned the loss of both Alex Vasyunov and Karl Rachunek. The story of how Alex even ended up in the KHL was clearly one of choice. The Devils made it clear to Alex with the large number of young forwards in our system, a spot on the Devils roster was not guaranteed and a two-way deal would be the only one on the table. Alex, wanting to play top-level hockey decided to reject the Devils 2-way offer on June 28th and play the upcoming season in the KHL. The Devils were fine with this choice as Alex would play a decent level of hockey and would still be their property when he decides to return back to the NHL.

Amazing what could happen from the outcome of one choice. If he had taken the two way deal, he would certainly still be here with us today instead of being apart of one of the greatest tragedies in hockey history.

Well, Panini the other day honoured my redemption request after over 9 months. The card they sent wasn’t an Alex Vasyunov autograph, it wasn’t even from the Luxury Suite set. Here is what I got instead:

﻿This card is from the 10/11 Zenith Set.

Nick Leddy isn’t a name I was very familiar with. Doing a little bit of research, he is a defenseman with some offensive potential. This past season, Leddy put up 37 points which was second to Keith’s 43 points among Chicago’s D-Men. Hockey’s Future ranks Leddy a 7.5 which translates into an Ehrhoff or Tallinder calibre defenseman. I am pretty happy with the substitution, but of course I certainly wish this tragedy hadn’t happened, but it did and this appears to be how Panini is dealing with those redemptions.